Former GM Janesville Assembly Plant Could Be Demolished Next Year

Former GM Janesville Assembly Plant Could Be Demolished Next Year
• BY SEAN SZYMKOWSKI
• — OCT 11, 2017

The General Motors Janesville, Wisconsin, assembly plant employed 7,000 workers at its peak in 1970 and cranked out hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks and SUVs. But, in 2009, GM had no choice but to close the facility amid the global financial crisis. It permanently shut the facility down in 2015.
Now, it may be demolished as early as next year, according to the GazetteXtra. St. Louis-based business Commercial Development Company entered a contract to purchase the facility from GM on September 1 of this year. It has until November 15 to make a final decision on its intent to purchase the former GM plant.
If the company does buy the plant, it will begin work to remove asbestos, which will take six months, per the report. By then, if Commerical Development Company doesn’t find a buyer for the facility, it will raze the plant in 2018.
“They said, ‘Unless we have reuse needs of the facility structure, we’ll start demolishing and salvaging that plant,’” City Manager Mark Freitag said.
The company would likely demolish the oldest parts of the facility first and attempt to salvage what it can as the demolition continues. The plant was reportedly worth just $12 million last year, which represents a significant decrease from its peak value of $44 million.